The invention relates to a wall construction for modular woven wire partitions.
Modular woven wire partitions are conventionally made up of individual rectangular panels arranged vertically one above the other as well as side by side in a horizontally adjacent relationship. During erection, the horizontally adjacent panels are bolted together. This is an extremely time consuming operation which adds significantly to the overall cost of an installation.
A particularly convenient modular wall construction is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,744 entitled "Wall Construction for Modular Woven Wire Partition", and incorporated herein by reference. This patent describes a wall construction for a modular woven wire partition including a plurality of panels arranged vertically in a coplanar relationship between a plurality of laterally spaced vertically disposed fixed support posts. Each of the support posts includes a plurality of vertically spaced openings for receiving ear end tab connector elements associated with the panels. The connector elements are engageable with the openings to thereby connect the panels to the support posts. Each successive connected panel prevents a lower panel from being removed from the support post. The top most vertically disposed panel includes a keeper plate or extensions associated with the support posts for preventing lifting and removal of the uppermost panels, thus safeguarding the wall structure against unauthorized disassembly.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide an improved means of individually securing each of the vertically arranged panels in place, thereby obviating reliance on securance of the uppermost panels as the sole means of thwarting unauthorized disassembly. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular construction in which each of the panels may be rapidly secured between support posts in a simple straight-forward manner.